Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Carmela Aquino A polling station at Princeton, where students worked to encourage youth voting on Super Tuesday. [Click to enlarge]

Thus far, this year's primaries have seen a significant jump in youth voting and involvement - and Super Tuesday's election results only reinforced this trend.

"The bottom line is, the turnout was very much up," University of Maryland research scholar Peter Levine said.

The percentage of eligible voters age 18 to 30 who headed to the polls in some states - such as Georgia, Missouri and Oklahoma - Tuesday tripled or quadrupled, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, an organization in which Levine is involved.

The organization also found significant increases in youth voting in states like California, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Levine said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, did well among young voters, but New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, also a Democrat, won the youth vote in both California and Massachusetts.

In terms of the Republican primaries, youth votes primarily went to Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

But after Tuesday's turnout, analysts and students ask: Will the campaigns continue to focus on recruiting and appealing to young people?

The Super Tuesday results and campaign efforts thus far suggest that the candidates will continue to look to young people both to win votes and to help sway undecided older voters, political analyst and St. Joseph's University history professor Randall Miller said.

Looking forward, analysts believe the surge in youth voting will only continue, particularly on the Democratic side.

"It would be a huge surprise if there was any abatement" in voter activity, Miller said. "My guess is that it will continue at the same pace."

Levine agreed, saying that the lack of a clear frontrunner on the Democratic side - Clinton and Obama nearly split Tuesday's vote - will keep young people interested in the remaining primaries.

Continued...

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